Cousins

We had a great time with family celebrating Kara's 7th birthday. These girls are growing up so fast! And it's great to see them have such a wonderful time together!

Youthful Prayer

Four is the magic number, apparently. You have to be 4 to take swimming lessons. You have to be 4 to take karate. You have to be 4 to go to Vacation Bible School. You have to be 4 to chew gum (in our house anyway). So we're riding in the van the other day and Brenner says to me, out of the blue. "Mommy, I'm done being 3. I prayed to Jesus. I'm 4 now."

A Visit to MJ's

Memorial Day weekend was spent with family and sunshine and aunt Mary Jane's house. Nonni and Grandpa Jim came back home with us to spend the weekend here too.

First swim of the season. It was pretty chilly.

Aaaahh...all three of them playing together peacefully...so nice to see....

Back at Nonni's

Back at Nonni's house, we headed out to the local pizza place for an entertaining evening.

And on our journey homeward, we passed through the town of Metropolis, the home of Superman. A routine stop for gas, and look what we find...

A Short Trip to See Great Friends

We couldn't visit Nonni and be that close to our dear friends, the Austins, without planning a visit. So we headed out for a few days for an extended play date and to meet the newest Austin member!

Aile's photographic attempt:

And Chaeli's:

I think this was also Aile:

I don't think they really wanted to wake up from their nap... So much fun together and they are tuckered out. :)

Brookfield Zoo

One of the main reasons Brenner wanted to go to Nonni's house (ha!) was because he wanted to go to "Nonni's Zoo." It is by far the largest gathering of animals he can fathom (our zoo is not much bigger than their petting zoo!), so he was quite excited!

A favorite thing, as it turned out, was to take pictures by all the fake animals. :)

Grandpa Jim was quite a trooper with Caelum on this zoo excursion! They were buddies this day, as Aile and Brenner dragged me and Nonni all over the place!

Calling the info line in the ape house so he could learn about the animals and hear their various calls.

The Hamill Family Play Area was the coolest. We could've spent hours in there. The kids had a blast. Who wouldn't want to dress up like a Lemur and play with them?!

Face painting:

Here they can build their own zoo:

And the ever popular animal hospital. Aile's favorite since she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.